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Review of A Sociolinguistic Analysis of /s/-Aspiration in Madrid Spanish

Jim Michnowicz, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, North CarolinaState University

SUMMARY

This text details a sociolinguistic study of 27 speakers from Madrid, Spain. Thelinguistic variable studied is coda (s), which in Spanish has the followingpossible variants: for 'disco' 'disk': 'standard' [s] ([disko]), aspirated [h]([dihko]), assimilation to a following consonant ([dikko]), or deletion([diko]). The author proposes to answer the following three research questions(p. 6):

1) ''How does non-standard Madrid Spanish differ from Standard Spanish inrelation to the /s/-aspiration feature?''2) ''What are the sociolinguistic factors which influence the use of[non-standard Madrid Spanish] pronunciation of /s/-aspiration?'' 3) ''What are the intralinguistic (language inherent) factors that contribute toan understanding of this phenomena [sic]?''

The book contains six chapters, briefly outlined below.

Chapter 1 is a brief introduction to Madrid Spanish and sociolinguistic theory.The author focuses on defining 'standard' Spanish as the varieties spoken innorthern Castile, in order to show that Madrid, although the capital of thecountry and generally considered to have a prestigious dialect, is not home tothe standard variety, at least with regards to /s/-aspiration. The researchquestions outlined above are presented.

Chapter 2 reviews previous literature on /s/-aspiration and northern peninsularvarieties of Spanish. Much of the chapter is devoted to explaining thedevelopment of medieval Spanish sibilants, which led to the current pattern of'distinction' (/theta/ vs /s/, as in caza vs casa) in northern Spain. Thischapter ends with a brief review of linguistic atlas projects in Spain,concluding that the data (or lack thereof) from previous studies leaves a lacunathat can be filled by the present study.

Chapter 3 outlines the methodology for the study. Speakers were primarilycontacted through a 'friend-of-a-friend' technique, and were recorded for aminimum of 1 hour. In order to capture a wide range of registers, the data setconsists of free conversation (least formal), a reading passage (moderatelyformal), and a word list task (most formal). Further details of speakers'education levels and other social factors are discussed.

Chapter 4 presents frequency results for the four variants of /s/ (again: [s],[h], assimilation, deletion) for each factor, such as phonetic context, speechstyle (reading text, word list, conversation), speaker age, gender, andeducation. Cross-tabulations of factors (such as young men with mid-leveleducation) are also presented. The author explains the procedures for thestatistical analysis used in determining significant factors in /s/ variation(the GEE method).

Chapter 5 presents a summary of chapter 4, this time with easier to followgraphs and discussion.

Results from chapters 4 and 5 indicate that the factors speech style, phoneticcontext, and speaker gender are significant factors in determining /s/variability. Other factors, such as speaker education and age, as well asinterviewer, were not significant.

Regarding phonetic context, in general word internal /s/ (as in disco 'disk')was preserved more frequenty (76%) than word final /s/ (either before a pause,vowel, or consonant, as in más ('more') - 63% [s]). The context which mostfavored weakening of /s/ was word-final pre-consonantal position (as in 'hablasfrancés' - 'you speak French').

Regarding speech style, /s/ was weakened most often in conversational style (66%[s]), followed by the reading text (82% [s]) and finally the word list (93%[s]). For gender, men were found to weaken /s/ (aspirate, delete, assimilate)more often than women. For example, in conversation data, men produced [s] 52%vs. 80% [s] for women. Other, non-significant patterns are also discussed. Forexample, a tendency was found for the lower education group to weaken /s/ morethan more educated groups.

Results are briefly compared with Molina's (1998) study of Toledo Spanish. Theauthor concludes that /s/-aspiration (and related processes) are less advancedin Madrid than in Toledo, as one would expect from previous studies and patternsof diffusion for /s/ weakening.

This study presents a welcome addition to the body of sociolinguistic literatureon /s/-aspiration and peninsular Spanish. The results, especially as presentedin chapter 5, provide a much clearer picture of /s/ weakening in Madrid thanthat previously available. As much as the author hoped to describe the processin Madrid, the book is a success.

There are, however, several areas that could have been further developed andmade more precise, and so that could have made the study a more importantcontribution to the broader field of (Spanish) sociolinguistics.

First, the author presents a superficial view of sociolinguistic theory andmethods, and at times appears to be citing previous work without applyingknowledge gained from other studies to the present investigation. For example,the author confuses real and apparent time constructs. She states that 'realtime' will be used due to the lack of previous studies on Madrid Spanish and totime constraints, where the author cannot follow speakers for 10-20 years. Inother words, she will use generational data from a single study to makepredictions about possible language change, which, of course, is a study inapparent time. In sociolinguistic methods, a study in 'real time' employsprevious studies to compare language over time, precisely what the author is notdoing (see Labov 1994). This lack of understanding of current sociolinguisticscan be found throughout the book. For example, when justifying the use ofspeaker gender as a variable, the author states ''It is a linguistically attestedfact that women and men use language differently (Trudgill 1983, Fasold 1990)'',but no further explanation is given. Citing some of the pertinent literature ongender, age and other differences would have been helpful.

The other major problem area is the lack of (current) bibliography. Most of thesociolinguistic studies cited are from the 1960's and 1970's, including Labov'sseminal 1966 study of New York English. While no doubt an important study,sociolinguistics has come a long way in the past 40 years. In general, theauthor seems unfamiliar with recent work in sociolinguistics and phonology. Forexample, the author at one point concludes that Natural Phonology is the modelmost suited for addressing s-aspiration. No mention is made of more recent workin constraint-based models, such as Morris 2000, who addresses /s/-aspiration inpeninsular Spanish.

The most significant gap in the background literature is the glaring omission ofstudies on Latin American /s/-aspiration. Weakening of /s/ is one of the moststudied processes in Spanish, yet little to no attempt is made to contextualizethe present results with data from other varieties of Spanish. There are dozens(if not more) studies on /s/ in Latin American Spanish, but none are mentionedin the present work (e.g. a few examples chosen at random: Cedergren 1978,Amastae 1989, Terrell 1979, Poplack 1980, Hundley 1987, Carvalho 2006, Lipski1984, Brown & Torres Cacoullos 2002, among many others). Reviewing literaturefrom outside of central Spain would have strengthened the study and allowed fora better understanding of the processes underway in Madrid. Even recent studiesin (and around) Spain are not addressed in the study (Samper-Padilla 1990,Ranson 1993, Gerfen 2002, Hernández-Campoy & Trudgill 2002, Morris 2000, Sayahi2005 among many others). Hernández-Campoy & Trudgill (2002) alone provide over50 references to studies of /s/-aspiration on the first page of their article.Although the purpose of the book is to study Madrid Spanish, which it doesaccomplish, the speech of that city of course does not exist in isolation, andmany of the findings of the present study would not be surprising given thepattern of /s/-aspiration in other varieties.

Interestingly, there are references in the bibliography that, as far as I cantell, do not appear in the book. One wonders if poor editing is to blame for atleast some of the problems outlined above.

Finally, no possible explanations are provided for the observed patterns. Canthey be related to migration patterns from Andalusia? Why do men aspirate morein Madrid? Why isn't education a significant factor? What does that suggest? Howdo the observed patterns relate to cross-dialectal and cross-linguisticsociolinguistic patterns. Unfortunately, it is left up to the reader to fill inthe blanks.

In spite of the (at times serious) problems outlined above, this book doesprovide the best study to date on this feature in Madrid. This book makes aworthy contribution for chapters 4 and 5, results and discussion, alone. Thesociolinguistic patterning of variables in Madrid deserves much future study,and this book is a step in the right direction. It is hoped that the author (andothers) will continue to study the varieties of Spain's capital, in order tounderstand its speech patterns within the wider context of sociolinguistics andSpanish dialectology.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
Jim Michnowicz is Assistant Professor of Spanish at North Carolina State
University. His research interests include dialect change and
standardization, linguistic expressions of identity, and dialect/language
contact.